So up next in the AteOhAte series is going to be the Mutant Cowbell! Because you can never have enough cowbell

The circuit is identical to the 808 cowbell other than the fact that it has been modified to have voltage control of the cowbell's pitch along with tuning controls on the panel for each of the oscillators that make up the sound. It also has a manual cutoff control for the filter present in the circuit.

This makes for typical 808 cowbell sounds but means you can also coax totally weird alien percussive noises and effects out of it!

It will use commonly available parts and should be a pretty easy build!

I've got the prototype PCB just about routed and will be making the prototype over the next week or so.

Will record some sound samples for y'all once it's ready

I will have professionally made and easy-to-follow PCBs available for this.

Re:Synthesis will be making eurorack panels for sale for the project eventually as well!

Let me know your interest by using the poll at the top so I know approximately how many PCBs to order (try not to bum up the thread with "one for me" posts!).

The PCBs:

Here are some shots of the prototype:

hexinverter

Some eye candy for now

spotta

Gotta have

hexinverter

rosch

awesome that you continue with this really cool stuff!

hexinverter

rosch wrote:

awesome that you continue with this really cool stuff!

Heck yeah man! Just had to take a break and work on my own designs for a bit, but now I've got some time to work on "clone" stuff again

The 808 hats are next!

rosch

hexinverter wrote:

rosch wrote:

awesome that you continue with this really cool stuff!

Heck yeah man! Just had to take a break and work on my own designs for a bit, but now I've got some time to work on "clone" stuff again

The 808 hats are next!

YEEEEHAAAAAAAAWWWW!

hexinverter

rosch wrote:

YEEEEHAAAAAAAAWWWW!

Hahaha

hexinverter

Prototype PCB is routed! I will be testing it over the next week or so. Will report back once that's done

dmitri

I will buy, along with more

Piedwagtail

Hex,

As a percussionist, the parameter I'd like voltage control over is decay.

To me pitch makes it a piano of some sort; of limited use.
This is something the majority of percussion synth designers adding voltage control seem to assume is the most important cv parameter.

Accent, decay and timbre(muffling) are the prime cv destinations in my eyes; with a real cowbell the velocity affects the decay from a short blip to a long honk; a lot cuban cowbell playing relies on moving the stick from taps on the mouth opening to accents against the body( not that synth cowbell has much to do with real cowbell though)

I'm yet to buy your percussion boards but knowing I've got to hack them is an inertia on my decision.

Robert

hexinverter

Piedwagtail wrote:

Hex,

As a percussionist, the parameter I'd like voltage control over is decay.

To me pitch makes it a piano of some sort; of limited use.
This is something the majority of percussion synth designers adding voltage control seem to assume is the most important cv parameter.

Accent, decay and timbre(muffling) are the prime cv destinations in my eyes; with a real cowbell the velocity affects the decay from a short blip to a long honk; a lot cuban cowbell playing relies on moving the stick from taps on the mouth opening to accents against the body( not that synth cowbell has much to do with real cowbell though)

I'm yet to buy your percussion boards but knowing I've got to hack them is an inertia on my decision.

Robert

I'm with ya on that! Voltage control of a current sink as would be needed for voltage controlling the decay on a simple EG like is present in these circuits is a whole 'nother module in itself though.

I mean that literally...the Serge Negative Slew (the pre-cursor to the Serge USG that everyone loves) is exactly that...VC-decay.

Sorry, it just doesn't fit into these simple clone PCBs!

Actually, it's not the designer assuming pitch CV is what people want, I don't think -- it's that it is typically (in most cases) far easier to do from a design perspective than VC-decay. Most percussion synthesis modules use the charge on a capacitor to generate a decay envelope, and, controlling the rate of discharge with a high rate of adjustment (ie: snappy to long) with voltage control is not easy.

You might be able to hack it with a vactrol, but, I don't want to make a permanent fix on a PCB that requires a rare and esoteric part to function properly.

If you want voltage control of decay for percussion sounds, keep an eye out for the expansion to my Jupiter Storm module. It does exactly that

Piedwagtail

Thanks for your reply.

Yes I knew it's a little more involved than pitch. I've been eyeing your a-0-a toms with side dish of vactrol.

In time I'm sure I'll add both those and this project.

Robert

nickster

Yay! as they say.

hexinverter

Piedwagtail wrote:

Thanks for your reply.

Yes I knew it's a little more involved than pitch. I've been eyeing your a-0-a toms with side dish of vactrol.

In time I'm sure I'll add both those and this project.

Robert

Hehe no problem man. I enjoy explaining things

Rad!!!

whitewulfe

...And my backlog increases further o_O

mDang

one for me

emdot_ambient

Hell yee-uh!

syntherjack

Wow! A lot of autorouter out there!

Zergon

woo-hoo, cowbell!!

Juxwl

So, there will be pots for Tune 1, Tune 2, CV, Cutoff, and Level? Jacks for Trig, Out, and CV? Do you know the approximate dimensions that the PCB will be?

hexinverter

Juxwl wrote:

So, there will be pots for Tune 1, Tune 2, CV, Cutoff, and Level? Jacks for Trig, Out, and CV? Do you know the approximate dimensions that the PCB will be?

The PCB is 87x77mm

Yes, you're right about the controls except you forgot the accent input

lazerkind

I have no real need for this really, but....
Mutant cowbell?
This is the coolest name for a module EVER!

VC over decay discussion, would not some vactrols be useable in in draining current? This means further mutation of the cow though

I think vcNoize and mutant cowbell will make a weird sounding baby.

hexinverter

lazerkind wrote:

I have no real need for this really, but....
Mutant cowbell?
This is the coolest name for a module EVER!

VC over decay discussion, would not some vactrols be useable in in draining current? This means further mutation of the cow though

I think vcNoize and mutant cowbell will make a weird sounding baby.

Haha thanks!

Yeah! Certainly a vactrol could be used to hack in some decay control. I guess I just didn't want to use a $5 hard to find part for an already sort of obscure project. The allure of this now is that it's very easy to make with common parts...just a bunch of caps, transistors, opamps and some CMOS!

home_listening

Slightly OT:

Is there a way to view poll results without voting? Maybe I'm a peeping tom or something, but I'm always interested in what people vote, but don't want to mess up your ordering totals by actually voting - I don't really like the cowbell sound